The Supreme Court has adjourned till March 3 to deliver judgement on the suit filed by some State Governors challenging the implementation of the redesign naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
After listening to argument by the plaintiff and defence counsels, the seven man Justices led by Justice Inyang Okoro agreed on the date to put to rest the legal issues around the new naira policy.
While taking arguments during hearing of the matter, counsel for the Federal Government, Kanu Agabi, said the apex court has no jurisdiction to hear the suit as the action cannot commence with Originating Summons.
He also contended that the plaintiffs did not deem it fit to summon the CBN to court as a respondent despite making reference to the apex bank 32 times in their originating summons and despite the fact that seven of the reliefs sought relate to the CBN.
But counsel to Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara governors, AbdulHakeem Mustapha asked the court to grant all reliefs being sought by the plaintiff.
The Supreme Court had on February 8 restrained the Federal Government from implementing the February 10 deadline for swapping the old naira notes with new ones, but the Central Bank of Nigeria refused to shift the deadline.
The injunction was sequel to a suit filed by Zamfara, Kogi and Kaduna state governments against the Attorney-General of the Federation on February 3.
Other states including Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Kano, Sokoto, Ogun and Cross River have also joined the suit as co-plaintiffs.
Abia State was however, not allowed to joint in the originating summon due to their late indication of interest.
